Pours a lovely hazed but bright orange golden colour, with enough clarity just to keep the light shining through. Head is filmy and insubstantial. Body has a bit of heft to it, while staying fluid. Looks very decent.

Nose is wonderfully weird and interesting, with nice mixtures of smoke, juniper, hay and green cut lucerne. Something sharper to it as well, with a pleasant spicy character. Really nice.

Taste actually improves on this complexity, adding a soft sweetness on the palate, and a really nice wholesome grain character. All of this is layered pleasantly with the sharp juniper, the rustic smoke and even a touch of eventual acidity to clear it out. This is all aided by the feel which is smooth at the start, but peppered with a fine carbonation—it mirrors the soft malt/sharp green characters in the flavour.

Really nice beer: as well as having interesting complexities, it has a really well thought out and well executed balance to the flavours. I'm really loving what Haand does—this one may be the finest of theirs I've tried to date.

A - Dark copper with light cream head, good head retention slowly giving way to the copper color.S - Nice smoked barley smell is the forefront with some sweet almost candied scents coming after.T - Smoke is quite apparent when cold, but is a smooth mellowed smoke blended in with the brew which imparts some sweet and almost citrus notes. As it warms, more fruit comes out and the smoke is less apparent. An enjoyable and complex taste.M - Mouthfeel is nice and medium bodied with some tingling in the cheeks and smoke being left throughout.O - Overall a very solid beer and enjoyable drink. Enjoyed the smoked malts and sweet Belgian like qualities play against each other. Perfect medium bodied ale for a hot day like today when a stout would be too much.

Poured from a 50cl bottle into an imperial pint glass. Batch 265, brewed on 19.01.10. Best before 24.03.12.

Pours a hazy copper with some gold highlights on the edges. Head consists of 2 fingers of white foam that gradually reduces to about one. Foam sticks to the glass very nicely. Some sediment pours from the bottle, adding some particles and cloudiness to the beer.

The scent of this beer is one of smoke, juniper berries, and some slight pine/citrus aromas from the hops. Tasting this beer reveals a delicious wet smokiness, again--juniper berries and a nice bitterness to the finish. The hops deliver some citrus notes on the finish and some spicyness in the middle and are balanced out well by the malt that delivers a brown sugar-like sweetness. A very pleasing combination that is also refreshing. The smoke flavors permeate, but are not at all overbearing. Fantastic overall balance in this beer. Not as smokey as HaandBryggeriet's Norwegian Wood, but there are some additional flavors going on in this Hesjeøl that provide real character. Hesjøl means Harvest Ale, and this beer conjures up images of harvest time smells and flavors. Well done.

Mouthfeel is very pleasing. Nicely carbonated without being fizzy. Great paring with cheeses. Drinkability--I find this beer to be highly drinkable. It is a pleasure to pick out the flavors, savor the smokiness, and enjoy the refreshing taste of this hearty ale.

Taste 4.5Initial crisp grassy hops with peppe, lemon, and slight smoky roasted malt .Then later melded w a more biscuit malt with notes of Belgian yeast spines and fruity esters. Like a combination of a hefeweizen and faint notes Belgian dubbel with more of slighter crisp finish and less sweet. Smoke presence is not the main focus by any means, but detectable in the background, especially in the finish

Overall. 4.5Great complex aroma and flavours with that makes a interesting robust tasting beer that still has a slightly lighter crisp body. Very easy to drink. Good in warmer weather.

Smoked presence is very very subtle. Faint and with incorporated Overall I really enjoyed this beer and found it was not too brash and instead well polished. imagine would go great w foodRecommend to try

Pours a deep, clear amber, extremely lively, with bubbles feeding a three inch creamy white head that shows excellent retention. There is solid lacing on the way down.

The aroma is interesting, caramel sweetness with a lightly smoked character. There are some spices and herbs, maybe juniper, and sweet fruits and hops.

The taste has an earthy hop kick up front with some sweet berries and apricots on a more heavily smoked malt backbone than the aroma suggest. The finish has some sweetness and hops but it's the interesting hickory smoked flavor that lingers on the palate after each sip.

The mouthfeel is medium bodied and moderately carbonated which seems to balance the smokiness very well.

I'm highly impressed with this one honestly. It's very drinkable and has just the right amount of smoke to allow all the other flavors come out. Really tasty.

Bottle, Batch 254, home. This beer pours a tawny shade of sienna with a small beige-ish head. The aroma is big mix of caramel malt, spicy rye, smoke, oak and floral hops. There's also what I now recognize as a wild yeast note from Haand's own strain. The flavor is medium sweet, smoke and more of that interesting yeast. This is another very good beer from an excellent brewery.

Pours a hazy copper color with a one-finger slightly off-white head. The head recedes into a patchy layer on top leaving thick lacing.

Smells of lightly smoked malts, sweeter caramel malts, and earthy hops, in that order. As it warms the hop aromas intensify a bit and a bit of spiciness jumps in as well.

Tastes similar to how it smells. Equal parts sweet caramel malt and mild smoked malt flavors kick things off. Very mild amounts of rye enter into things soon thereafter before fading to make way for good amounts of leafy and earthy hop flavors. The hops carry through to a solidly bitter ending.

Mouthfeel is very good. It's got a nice thickness with smooth carbonation.

Drinkability is also very good. I finished my glass without a problem and could easily have another.

Overall this was one of the more interesting beers I've had recently. It went down easy - no surprise as it had two specialty malts I like a bunch - however it didn't seem to really own any one of its many facets. Still, worth a shot.

A: Poured from a bottle to an imperial pint glass. Had a dak amber color and a thick, hazy consistency. There was a huge amount of white, foamy, long-lasting head. OK lacing.

S: Didn't have a particularly overwhelming smell, but did have traces of hops, wheat, sugar, smoke, and herbs.

T: Tasted of hops, a bit of malt, sweets, a grassy quality, and an herbal component. Despite this being classified as a smoked beer, the smoke isn't as noticiable as it is with other beers of the style (Aecht for example). Still, a nice, easygoing flavor.

M: A very good amount of carbonation with a dry finish. Medium-bodied.

A: Pours a hazy, sunset-orange color with about 1 1/2 fingers of creamy, light khaki colored head perched on top. The foam is fed by some very adequate carbonation and gradually falls down to a whispy skim and creamy ring. Some small ropes (threads?) of lace were left behind.

S: Big, smoky, smoked grain aroma right off the bat. There is some caramel and quite a bit of spicy, herbal, floral hops and a pinch of fruity yeast.

T: Quite smoky with nicely roasted malt/grain flavors. Everything about this suggests that this is the type of beer where all of the ingredients might be sourced from one village or even one farm. Very herbal and natural tasting. As it warms a noticably fruity yeast flavor emerges to compliment the smokiness.

M: Surprisingly full bodied with a fantastic spicy and peppery zing that spreads out all throughout the mouth.

D: Another winner from the Hand Brewery! This is, according to their label, a "Norwegian Harvest Ale". No such category exists but their description on the label also references the fact that this is "smoky". Be sure to drink the sediment in the bottom of the bottle!

Bottle: Poured a light dirty hay color ale with a generous foamy head with some retention and light lacing. Aroma consists of multi-grain malt bill with deep floral and herbal hoppy notes. Taste is a mix between some lightly smoked multi-grain malt with some quite flavourful green and herbal hops with limited bitterness. Body is quite full with good carbonation. Nicely brewed with fresh green hops really coming through and well balanced by grain malt bill.

Bottle 500ml shared two ways. Amber pour with a nice thick white head. Aroma is smoky and meaty with some spices (cloves?). Very tasty and powerful smoke grain and yet very light bodied. As close to Schlenkerla as it can get, very surprises by this one.

It pours a nice orange/red/amber copper color with a foamy, but sudsy off-white head that has some soapiness to it. It recedes slowly with some nice lacing.

The smell is lightly smoky but refreshing. It has notes of smoke but also some fruits like oxidized apple and candied orange peel. There is some spiciness from the yeast and the rye. Rounding it out is some caramel sweetness.

The flavor is a little less smoky and more of a funky and fruity beer. It has notes of wild yeast that add a bit of barnyard funk. It works nicely with the interesting malt bill.

This beer pours a hazy, amber color, and is topped by a beige ring of a head. The aroma is fruity and malty with notes of banana, caramel, and toffee. There are also notes of grassy hops and smoke.

This beer opens up with sweet, malty notes of molasses and toffee over grassy undertones. Some spiciness appears in the center along with a dry smokiness that builds towards the finish. This beer is full-bodied, moderately carbonated, and had a grassy dryness in the finish.

I liked this beer quite a bit. Normally smoked beers are heavy handed with the smokiness, but the smoke in this one wasn't overpowering at all.